The advent of the Internet has unleashed new opportunities for consumers to use computer communication to search for products and conduct commercial transactions. For instance, the World Wide Web has developed to such a point where consumers can purchase virtually any kind of product by way of electronic commerce.
Traditionally, merchants and others conducting commerce via computer communication organize their products into databases according to standard attributes of the products. For example, online book sellers typically categorize books by their title, author, publisher, genre, and ISBN number, among other standard attributes. Sellers of pet supplies, for example, categorize their products according to the type of animal and type of product being provided, e.g., food, shelter, play toy, etc. Online clothing retailers categorize and present their products according to the gender and/or age of the person for whom the clothing is intended, the type of clothing, size, color, material, etc. In all these cases, and other circumstances in which products are sold, merchants and others rely on traditional categories to identify and present their products, and allow users to browse for products, using those categories. What is needed is a system and method that can analyze items for other attributes such as geographic attributes and present items to consumers that they might not otherwise have considered. Embodiments of the present invention address this need and other shortcomings that are present in the prior art.